The Best Beauty Tips We Learnt Backstage at Fashion Week

From hair to makeup, mini facials and more, we’ve spent this week chatting to the experts responsible for the beauty looks behind the scenes at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and asked them their best tips…

Karla Spetic

For flawless skin, Mikele Simone who created the makeup for Karla Spetic using The Body Shop recommends adding an oil to your routine, stat. He swears by the brand’s Oils of Life. “It benefits every skin type and every age group- especially with the colder moths coming- you cant go wrong. It [also] works amazing underneath foundation, or on it’s own. If you’re at work, half way through the day, pop a couple of drops on your fingertips and press it on as a bit of a highlighter instead of shimmer."

Steven Khalil

To create a glossy sheen like on the models at Steven Khalil, Makeup Director for Revlon, Heidi Scarlett-King recommends mixing the Revlon Insta Blush stick with a touch of Vaseline.

Heidi adds that although it’s old school, getting enough sleep is imperative to a flawless face of makeup. “You can use layers of concealer, but if you have puffy elements from lack of sleep, there’s not much you can do about it,” she says. So how do you fake a full 8 hours? As it’s mainly your eye area that gives you away, Heidi suggests, "anything collagen-based that tightens. Cucumber and caffeine tighten around the area for a quick fix."

Photograph by Jordann Wood

"As soon as you put shine in the hair, it automatically oozes health and expense," says Anthony Nader, Hair Director for Revlon Professional, who created the textured tresses for Steven Khalil. Anthony’s go-to is the brand’s Glamourama Shine Spray, “for any extra sheen if the hair is still a little dull, it looks natural and has no hold.”

Bec & Bridge

"Don’t expect the world from your lashes if you’re not going to curl them,” says Nicole Thompson for M.A.C backstage at Bec & Bridge. “If you don’t curl the lashes it just makes everything look limp and lame and we wants up and fabulous.”

Christopher Esber

Redken’s Paloma Rose Garcia created this pushed-back do for Christopher Esber. “There is a lot of suitability to the girls’ natural haircuts, lengths and textures,” she says. “We’re seeing heaps of that this season- not every girl looking the same.”

That said, her top tip is to be individual and work with what you have. “Create your own brand,” she adds.

Lianna Perdis – who walked in the Christopher Esber show- says the most amazing tip is from her dad, Napoleon Perdis- who created the look backstage. “My dad always says, brows and mascara first- it frames your face for your makeup.” And the cosmetics king himself adds, “always prime, because not to prime is a crime.”

There’s even mini facials happening backstage. So we asked Dermalogica’s Jodi Ayre how to do the Christopher Esber skin prep at home.

“Check out the Dermalogica Dewy Skin DIY,” she says. “It’s a quick set of movements which is about smoothing out forehead lines, working around the eyes on a few pressure points, lifting up the glow points as you move through the cheek and then just working to smooth out and drain away along the jawline.”